Your Morning Dump… Where Jeff Green has to focus on moving forward

Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.

“Jeff has had his ups and downs,” started Stevens.

Ups and downs?! That’s about as scathing as it gets this time of year. When reporters relayed this bit of info to Green, even he feigned a bit of shock.

“Me!? Ah, dammit,” he playfully sighed.

[…] Green knows he can’t lament when things go wrong.

“Coach Brad Stevens has been on me about just moving forward,” said Green. “I’m a guy who’s hard on myself. I don’t like to miss shots. I don’t like to turn over the ball. But in order for me to get better, I have to continue to move forward.”

This has been, and apparently continues to be, Jeff Green’s biggest hurdle on the floor. Whatever his ceiling is, it’s being clouded by his own emotions, and it takes him out of the game at times.

Jeff Green is too self aware.

In sports, the brightest stars have so much faith in their abilities, they look past the occasional missed shot or turnover. They all know the next shot is going in, or the next pass will find its mark. Green, though, fixates on mistakes, which leads to more of them. Add it to the list of coaching challenges for Brad Stevens.

Green needs to understand that if he misses half the time, he’ll be a great shooter. If he misses 60% of the time from three, he’ll be a great three-point shooter. Guys like Green need a different approach than guys like Paul Pierce did. Green needs, for lack of a better word, a little more coddling.

The bottom line for Green is that if he can get out of his own head and just go out there and play, he’s good enough that all those misses and makes will add up to a pretty good stat line. He’s got to look at the big picture, because putting himself under a microscope is only going to hold him back.

Page 2… Where Rajon Rondo is humbled by his ACL injury

That’s Mike Gorman (who, by the way, is our guest on Celtics Stuff Live this Sunday night) talking to Rajon Rondo about his ACL recovery. It’s an interesting little interview where Rondo talks about not being able to stand up in the shower or walk up the stairs after his injury and how humbling that is.

He also talks a little about watching his teammates play without him.

“I think I have a better understanding for Jeff Green, playing with him and where he likes the ball,” Rondo said. “Guys like Avery [Bradley. Just going back and watching my teammates play and seeing them grow.”

We’ll see how it manifests itself on the court. Rondo is a voracious watcher of film, so being able to watch these guys play without him must have been interesting. Jeff Green has played his best as a Celtic while Rondo was out with the injury, so there’s no doubt Rondo learned something from it.

He did say this week that he feels like he can just give the ball to Green in the open court and go, letting Green bring the ball up… so that’s going to be interesting. And when you consider Brad Stevens emphasizing “playing with pace,” we’re starting to get more of an uptempo picture coming together.

And finally…

Brandon Bass and Kris Humphries might have to point Kelly Olynyk in the direction of the weight room….